On Friday, I wrote about the World of Trucks (WoT) website and shared some basic background information about the site and provided some details on how you sign up and link EuroTruck Simulator 2 (ETS2) and/or American Truck Simulator (ATS) to your WoT account. This all needs to take place before you can proceed into the Job Market function of World of Trucks.
At the present time, the Job Market function is only available for ETS2. However, I read in the SCS Forums that there are plans to introduce the Job Market function for ATS at a later stage in 2016. So for now, the WoT Job Market is exclusive to ETS2.
When you first click on the Job Market link on the World of Trucks website, you’ll see a drop down menu listing a few dozen European cities. I don’t have a screen shot available to show you, but you’ll only see the drop down menu one time. Select the city you wish to operate your first job from. The city you choose can be the same city where your truck currently resides in ETS2 or it can be any other city. If your truck is not presently in the city you select, your truck will automagically be transported to that location at a later stage.
Once you select the city, you’ll see a listing of job offers available from that city. You can sort this list by several variables including distance, destination, time etc. I usually use either distance or destination. In the example below I’m using distance.
When you find a job that interests you, you click that job (example below is a job transporting chimney systems from Lille, France to Klagenfurt, Austria). A few things to note. The “Time Left” indicates the amount of real world time you will have to complete this job. Meaning, at the time I was browsing for job offers it was approx. 5 AM MST (in real life). The WoT Job Market is based on real world time and not ETS2 in-game time. As you know there is a big difference. Another point of interest is the “Est. Delivery Time”. Again, back to the image below…the Est. Delivery Time showing ~1 H 19 MIN is the approx. amount of time (real world time) it should take me to complete the job. Once you are ready to accept this job, click the “Sign Contract” button.
The next screen displayed will be the “Contract Signed” screen and will just provide you the basic information about the load. Click OK and return to the ETS2 Game application.
Back inside the game, click on “Job Market”. You’ll notice you now have a third option in the “Job Type Selection” screen titled “External Contracts”. Click the External Contracts button.
You’ll now be presented with the screen below showing your delivery job. Once again, take note of the remaining time. In the example below we have 21 hours and 11 minutes to complete this job. This is real world time and not in-game time. Click on “Begin Delivery”. Once you’ve done this, regardless of the location where your truck was last, it will be automagically teleported to the starting point and already connected to the trailer.
All you now need to do is drive….just remember, these external contract jobs work off of real world time. In the screenshot below, we’ve arrived in Klagenfurt and dropped off our trailer.
The deliver was successful (as shown below) and we’re close to earning our level 27 promotion. Want to do another job? Sure……
So we return to the World of Trucks website and click on Job Market. WoT now knows our truck is located in Klagenfurt and provides a listing of all jobs from this location.
Find a job which interests you, and sign the contract. This next job we are taking is a load of Copper Roof Gutters to Kassel Germany. We have 14 hours (real world hours) to complete this job and the estimated time required is one hour. Click Sign Contract.
Now return back to the ETS2 game and click on Job Market and once again select External Contracts. Then click “Begin Delivery”. Assuming your truck was still at the previous drop off location, it will once again be teleported to the next pickup location. So, if you need to discover the current city you are in, or if you need to repair your truck etc. and want to do this driving around with a trailer attached…then you’ll want to do that before you click “Begin Delivery”.
Not that you require proof, but I thought I would show you a before and after screen shot to illustrate how the time works with WoT Job Market. In the screenshot below, we have pulled into a rest area. We’ve parked and shut off our engine. Our in-game time is Thursday 11:03 and we have 13 hours and 41 minutes to complete this job.
We have now completed our rest. The time is now Thursday, 20:03. We’ve rested for our required 9 hours and we still have 13 hours and 40 minutes to complete this job.
We made it to our destination and completed another “Excellent” delivery and earned our level 27 promotion. This marks the 6th WoT Contact job we’ve successfully completed.
So, what happens if we decide to perform jobs from the ETS2 Freight Market? So in our example above, we completed our delivery to Kassel, Germany. Let’s say we opt to just use the ETS2 Freight Market and we select a job to Antwerp, Belgium. We complete that delivery and we go look at the WoT website. It will still show our location as Kassel, Germany. If you want to perform another job from WoT, you can either pickup an ETS2 delivery back to Kassel or just allow WoT to teleport you.
A few questions you might be asking yourself….
Why use the WoT Job Market? I think as it stands today, this is a valid question. As you can tell I also don’t exclusively use the WoT Job Market. While the extra step in logging into the WoT website to select a job is minimal effort and I’m personally not that bothered with it making me start in the last city I visited. I really would rather drive from previous drop point to new pickup point versus being teleported to that location. But I think the WoT Job Market has some wonderful potential down the road and I suppose having access to it now and using it as frequently (or infrequently) is really up to you.
Are the WoT Job Market offers similar to ETS2 Freight Market? I haven’t done a side-by-side comparison on each and every delivery. But I have spot checked a few and found the price per mile to be similar. If you are just starting out and every Euro counts, then you may have some concerns. But as I presently have over a million Euro in the bank…I’m more about the overall experience than I am on making sure I can pay my bills.
What do I see for the future of the WoT Job Market? Of course, I am in no way affiliated with SCS Software and I am not in communication with them. Any knowledge I have is completely public knowledge that I’ve obtained from public sources. But I think the potential for the WoT Job Market is HUGE!
Basically, if you are familiar with the concept of a virtual airline in the flight simulation hobby, then the WoT website and specifically the WoT Job Market can be just this. Yes there are VTC’s or Virtual Truck Companies. But without direct integration into the ETS2 or ATS games, (in my opinion) there is just too much manual work required. I don’t want to have to visit a website and fill out a manual job completion form to track my deliveries. This would be like the virtual airlines of 15+ years ago with their manual PIREP process.
Because WoT is owned and managed by SCS software, they have the integration into both the ETS2 and ATS game platforms. So further enhancement will only make this a better experience. As I mentioned in part 1, some of these future enhancements may allow for setting up VTC’s within the WoT environment. So that would be cool….
But here’s an idea I came up with in the shower this morning. Yes, I do some of my best brainstorming and thinking in the shower. But let’s say you start out in Europe with ETS2. You pick a job from Bucharest, Romania to Los Angeles, California. The job is a shipping container. You select that job through the WoT Job Market and you drive that container from Bucharest to Southampton. It’s delivered at the port of Southampton. Through the magic of web databases, the shipping container is virtually moved via container ship from Southampton to New York (or Miami or wherever). Then you start up ATS, pickup the container and drive it to its destination. This concept could be done via single player or even handled by multiple individuals as part of a VTC. Sound fun? I think so too…
In closing, while I’ll admit that the WoT Job Market may not be appealing in the current stage, I do encourage you to use it (even just occasionally). We need to use it so we can show there is an interest. To quote that famous line from Field of Dreams, “If you build it, He (WE) will come”.
Well that is just about all the time I have for today’s update. I think I’ll head down to my basement office and do a little trucking now. But make sure you subscribe to my RSS feed to get all the latest blog postings sent direct to your favorite RSS Reader. Or just bookmark the website and return often. You can also follow me on Twitter. I have also started streaming some of my gaming activities on Twitch. Drop by if you see I’m streaming.
World of Trucks – Part One If you’ve been playing Euro Truck Simulator (ETS2) for any period of time, you may already know about the World of Trucks (WoT) website. However, perhaps you are brand new to the trucking sims by way of the newly released American Truck Simulator (ATS) and either just simply don’t know about WoT or want to know more. This blog post will be part one of two postings I will write regarding the World of Trucks website. Today I’ll introduce you to the website, the basic features, how to interface with ETS2 and/or ATS. During part two, I discuss the Job Market function.
I started playing Euro Truck Simulator 2 in the early summer of 2015 and joined World of Trucks very soon after. While the website has been in “alpha” mode for as long as I’ve been using it, the features and functionality have evolved nicely in the almost 8+ months I’ve known about it. The World of Trucks website is operated by SCS Software (the developers of ETS2 and ATS) and was launched in October 2013. I suppose in website standards, having a system remain in alpha for over two years may be viewed as a negative. But considering WoT is free to join and in many ways helps to bring our community together, not to mention the fact they are adding many new features, I think it shows a lot of promise.
Anyway, as I previously stated…World of Trucks is a companion website for both Euro Truck Simulator 2 (ETS2) and the brand new American Truck Simulator (ATS). With exception to the Job Market function (which I’ll cover in part 2), ETS2 and ATS function the same with WoT. Joining the WoT website is both free and super easy. If you purchased ETS2 or ATS via Steam, you can just use your Steam account information to join the WoT website.
Once you have joined the website, you need to link the ETS2 and/or ATS game to WoT. From inside the games main screen, look for the World of Trucks button. Just click that button and your ETS2 or ATS will be linked to WoT. It’s really that easy.
Now some really question why even use World of Trucks. Many compare and even liken it to Facebook, but for trucks. While this comparison may have been somewhat accurate, things have changed with regards to the job market function and all that is planned for WoT in the future. Some of the future plans for WoT is to allow the users (us) to create virtual trucking companies (VTC’s) and even shared multiplayer experience. Today, both VTC’s and Multiplayer functionality exist, but they are 3rd party applications and not official to SCS Software. But of course, these are future plans and there really is no ETA on when we might begin to see this functionality.
So for now, if you are interested in World of Trucks, go sign up, then link your ETS2 and/or ATS games to the site and customize your profile.
American Truck Simulator – My First Look
Yes, the very much anticipated American Truck Simulator hit the Steam Store on Tuesday, 2 February. This was an entire day earlier than expected and it certainly looks like American Truck Simulator (ATS) will be everything that Euro Truck Simulator 2 (ETS2) is and in my opinion, a whole lot more. Here in the US of A, American Truck Simulator can be purchased from the Steam Store for a whopping $19.99. I’m not sure if this is a limited “introductory price” or if this will be the price going forward. But in my opinion, this game is worth every red cent. Like ETS2, ATS is developed by SCS Software, based in Prague, Czech Republic.
I must admit, I’m relatively new on the scene of these types of games. Oh I’ve been flying computer sims for over 30 years (got my start on the Commodore 64) and you can find a lot more about my involvement in the Flight Simulation Community by reading my Flight Sim Blog. However, while I’ve certainly known about “other” simulation type games…I really didn’t get the point. I mean, who wants to just drive a truck around or plow some fields? Holy Moly have I been wrong.
My foray into these “other” type of simulation games came at a time in my life where I was doing an intense amount of traveling. I spent the better part of 2014 and half of 2015 in hotel rooms. To better pass the time, I brought along a high-end gaming laptop but playing Flight Simulator just wasn’t appealing without all my external hardware. Plus, FSX (and even P3D) just requires a lot more horsepower for me to be satisfied with the experience. So I was in a hotel room back in the fall of 2014 watching Twitch. I noticed one of the usual flight sim streamers was playing Farming Simulator 2015. Again, my first reaction was….Gosh this must be a boring game. But honestly, the longer I watched….the more interesting it became. So I decided to give it a go. I was hooked on FS2015. Plus it was a game that performed really well on my gaming laptop and I could play it while traveling. It saved me from boring “hotel television”.
Some time later, I saw that same Twitch streamer playing Euro Truck Simulator 2. Again, spending so much time away from home…this looked like something that could help pass the time. It did! I became hooked on ETS2, then soon after I began hearing about and seeing preview videos regarding American Truck Simulator. Oh…I wanted ATS. As a matter of fact, just learning about ATS sort of caused me to lose interest in ETS2. Perhaps being an American, living in America and truly understanding just how important trucking is to this country…well, I just wanted ATS. Oh…I actually used to drive a truck (tractor/trailer). Back in the early 1990’s I worked for the Dr. Pepper Bottling Company. I drove a tractor/trailer rig and delivered Dr. Pepper products. Anyway, ATS just couldn’t come soon enough for me.
While the new year is only one month in, it’s been a busy time for me and my wife. One, we have both been sick and it seems like we’ve been sick most of 2016. I guess this fact is true as we are both still not 100%. But every day is a new day. Anyway, I had almost forgotten about the release of ATS until I received the email from the Steam Store letting me know a product on my wish list had just been released. I was at work, but I logged into Steam and made the purchase right then and there. The hours were dragging by until I could get home and install on my gaming PC. Between Tuesday afternoon/evening and today (written on Thursday morning 4 February) I’ve accumulated 8 hours playing ATS. I know this is certainly no record, but I feel I have enough hours logged in game to provide a few initial thoughts (or opinions). These won’t all be 100% positive, but give it a read and let me know what you think.
Initial Thoughts
WOW….As Tim McGraw would sing, “I like it, I love it…I want some more of it”. Basically it is ETS2, but with American Trucks (Kenworth and Peterbilt) with trucking routes currently in California and Nevada. The state of Arizona will be released as a free expansion pack in the very near future. Again, the current price in US Dollars is $19.99 via the Steam Store. Like ETS2, ATS (at this time) is only available for the PC. No console versions (to my knowledge) are planned.
Thoughts about Console Games
I just want to quickly throw this out there. I don’t own a game console. So the only games I’m really experienced with are PC based programs. While I have friends who rave about various console game titles, a game title like American Truck Simulator, Euro Truck Simulator 2 (and even Farming Simulator 2015) would be extremely limited on a console game. Of course, I’m aware Farming Simulator 2015 is available for the console platform, but it is EXTREMELY limited in game play from the experience one gets on the PC game platform. Games like ATS, ETS2 and FS2015 are enhanced by all the various game mods (game modifications) made available. While I’ve played almost the full 8 hours on ATS without adding any Mods, in the coming days, weeks and months….so many great mods will be made available that (in my opinion) will just make the experience better. For those familiar with Flight Sim (FSX or P3D). Just think of only flying the default aircraft, default textures, default weather etc. BORING!!!!
Things I like about ATS
#1 is the fact that ATS is about AMERICAN TRUCKS. Trucks and Trucking, is who we are as Americans. Truck drivers (and the trucks they drive) are as important as the Cowboy was back in the 1800’s. You can’t drive down any US Highway without seeing a tractor/trailer rig hauling the goods that make our country so awesome. As ATS continues its eastern expansion, the game and game play will continue to offer hours and hours and even more hours of fun and excitement.
In the short 8 hours I’ve had with ATS, I’ve explored Los Angeles, San Francisco, Oakland and Las Vegas (plus a lot in between). SCS Software has done an outstanding job modeling these American cities. Of course, unlike the Flight Sim world where a city like LA is full size and flying from LAX to SFO (without acceleration) takes the same amount of time it does in real life…the world in American Truck Simulator is condensed. Driving a semi from Los Angeles to San Francisco in real life would probably take 8-9 hours (perhaps longer with California traffic). But in ATS, this can be done in about 30 minutes. So keeping this in mind, (and back to my thoughts on the cities I’ve explored) SCS Software have done a great job in adding in the major landmarks you expect to see while driving through these great US cities.
I play in career mode, which just simply means that I start out with nothing and work my way up to a point where I can purchase my first truck, then slowly save and grow my trucking company by adding more trucks and hire drivers to drive those trucks. I don’t use mods which add any extra $$$ or XP (Experience Points). While I’m not going to climb up on my ivory tower and say it is evil to use these types of mods, I’ll just say that with many things in life, the personal satisfaction gained by hard work will make you appreciate each and every dollar you earn. But it is your game…you can play it any way you like.
I also like the weigh station concept which has been added into ATS. This is very true to life and is something that American Truckers must put up with. It’s done nicely in ATS. While driving, you may receive an alert to pull into the next weigh/inspection station. Failure to do so will result in a fine. Just exit at the next station and drive onto the scales and stop. It only takes a few seconds.
Finally, perhaps some may be wishing more of the US of A was represented in ATS. I think the current setup of California and Nevada (and the soon to be free expansion of Arizona) will be enough to keep this game interesting for some time. Of course, I truly hope in time we will see new states added. While I’m sure the expansion states will come with an extra cost…it will serve to help keep the game fresh and new. Driving a truck in California, Nevada and Arizona will be completely different from Colorado, Texas and beyond.
Things I dislike about ATS
As I stated earlier, this blog post is not going to be 100% positive. I believe there are some serious issues with how they set a few things up in ATS which I didn’t really notice in ETS2.
Police
The police in ATS are truly a pain in the backside. Unlike the lack of police cars in ETS2, (handled via speed cameras) police cars are part of the AI in American Truck Simulator. You’ll spot police cars cruising the streets, highways and even parked on the side of the road. The police cars don’t actually pull you over, but instead will hit you with a speeding ticket of $1000.00. Now in ETS2, I believe the variance was about 5 mph. Meaning if the speed limit was 55, you could safely set your cruise control to 60 and be OK. Plus the red light cameras in ETS2 only seem to be near the city areas. But in ATS, the police are everywhere.
Now, I realize just a few minutes ago I said I didn’t use any mods to cheat the natural play of the game. But I seriously believe there is a programming issue with the behavior of the police and because of this, I’ve installed a mod to remove the fines. Now this doesn’t mean that I am speeding everywhere I go.
Speed Limits
As you traverse between California and Nevada, you’ll notice a big difference with speed limits on the highways. In California, on all highways and interstates I’ve driven on, this speed limit in the game is 55. You’ll notice as you drive in Nevada the speed limit increases up to 65, 70 and I think even 80 in some areas. But the issue I have with the speed limits in the game is two-fold.
First, the speed limit signs just aren’t very visible in the game. Perhaps this is just me, but I’ve heard a few Twitch streamers mention the same thing. Before I installed the mod which disabled the police fines, the speed limit would be 55, then change to 30 and almost always there would be a cop and if you didn’t immediately slow from 55 to 30, he would ding you $1000. In the real world, it is easier to spot the speed limit signs and in many cases you’ll see a sign informing you that a slower speed limit is approaching.
Second, most city speed limits in the game is 30 mph. This is fine. But what I’ve noticed several times is as you are driving through the city at 30 mph, you’ll see the speed limit increase to 55 mph then less than a minute later it drops down to 45 or 30 mph. Then a few moments later it is back up to 55. I don’t feel this is realistic. YES, most US cities will have a reduced speed limit, but as you near the city limits they speed limits will begin to increase to say 45 mph, then to 55 mph etc. Unless it is a construction zone, you won’t really see the speed limit increase and then be almost immediately reduced as you are still leaving the city limits.
AI Traffic
The AI Traffic is absolutely nuts in both ATS and ETS2. Of course, I’ve also noted really odd behavior with the AI in Farming Simulator 2015 and for years the AI in Flight Sim has also been symptomatic. I fully understand this is just how it is. But if you play ATS (or ETS2 for that matter) long enough you’ll learn to hate the AI traffic. I’ve yet to take the measures to turn it off. But here are my top pet peeves with the AI traffic
First, while I know in real life someone may pass you then immediately slow down…but in ATS (and ETS2) it seems to happen more and more. Second, here in the US…trucks (and cars too) will often merge to the left when vehicles are merging onto the interstate. This doesn’t really happen in the game. Third, most highways (especially interstates) will have a much longer acceleration lane while merging onto the highway. This allows the vehicles to gain speed before merging left. This might also help with the crazy behavior of the AI drivers.
Finally, with regards to AI traffic behavior. There are a few situations where you must cross or turn onto a highway with no ramp or stop light. The AI traffic just keeps coming and coming and coming. Really the only thing that you can do is to slowly start driving into the intersection and eventually the traffic will stop. But this is not very realistic in real life.
Trains
Ugh…while I realize this is American TRUCK Simulator and not a Train Simulation game, the trains depicted in the game are weak sauce. In America, what isn’t transported via truck is done so via rail. LOOOOOOOOONNNNNNNGGGGGGG freight trains hauling tanker cars, box cars, intermodal etc. etc. need to be added to give us more eye candy.
My Wish List for ATS
While I realize there will always be some limitations of what can be done in a game application versus real life, I feel (and certainly hope) some of these wish list items can be incorporated into American Truck Simulator to better match up with real life experience.
Police
Hopefully the points I made above (in the Things I dislike about ATS) section can be addressed.
AI Traffic
Hopefully the AI engine technology can be further developed to ease some of the headaches.
Real World Brands
I know this is a licensing issue. But hopefully mod developers will soon release real world branding to the game. I’m ready to see Fed Ex instead of Post Ed trucks.
Double/Triple Trailers
Would love to see ATS incorporate the opportunity to haul double and triple trailers. Man, that would be cool!
Livestock
This is really self explanatory. I’d love the opportunity to haul some beef.
Rest Areas/Truck Stops/More Places to Sleep
Again, I fully understand the fact that the world inside of ATS is downsized. I’m not sure ATS would have the same appeal if it took 50+ hours to drive coast to coast. But just as trucking is such a big part of the American culture…so are the truck stops and rest areas. I’d like to see larger fuel stops (truck stops) along the interstate highway. In addition to fuel, these big truck stops offer plenty of parking for rest breaks. Along the US Interstate Highway System you’ll find large rest areas designed for both the trucks and passenger vehicles. I’d like to see these incorporated into the game.
Thoughts about Mods
Remember what I stated near the beginning of this posting about console gaming and the lack of mod functionality. There are some really terrific mods available for Euro Truck Simulator 2 and in time I have no doubt that the mods for ATS will be just as amazing. Everything from mods to enhance the game play to different types of trucks, trailers and cargo types will be made available via mods. I have a feeling that many (if not most) of the wish list items will eventually be addressed via mods. If you search “American Truck Simulator Mods” in Google, you’ll likely find several different websites listing available mods. The site I’ve used before (and the one I downloaded the police mod) is ATSMOD.net Less than 48 hours into the release of ATS, this site already has many pages of available mods. Some useful and some not so much. In time, more and more (and higher quality mods) will be made available via these mod download sites.
Final Thoughts
I’ll repeat what I said earlier regarding my initial thoughts, again as Tim McGraw sings, “I like it, I love it…I want some more of it”. While I have listed some negative experiences I’ve had with the game in my 8 hours of play, the game itself is stable and I’ve experienced no bugs. It performs beautifully on my system (follow that link to see my system specs) and I run ATS at max settings. Actually, this is really what I enjoy about ATS, ETS2 and Farming Simulator 2015…you don’t have to spend hours and hours and hours tweaking to get max enjoyment like you need to do with FSX or P3D. As an example, if I rebuild my system, it will take me many hours to install all the add-on scenery, textures, aircraft etc. Not the case with these other titles.
I think I’ll close and upload this blog post then head downstairs and fire up my Peterbilt in American Truck Simulator.
I realize it’s been a while since I updated this blog. As I’m sure you are already aware, American Truck Simulator (ATS) was released yesterday (2 February). While I’ve only been able to spend about two hours in the game, I can tell you that it is almost everything that I had hoped it would be. While I enjoyed the almost 70 hours I spent playing Euro Truck Simulator 2 (ETS2), being an American…I really was eager to play ATS.
I’ll return with an updated blog posting of my American Truck Simulator experience very soon. At the present time, I’m busy moving all my blog sites and websites into a new web host. My old web host was starting to seriously have issues impacting my sites up time and their support just wasn’t what it used to me. So “bear” with me, and keep checking back.
The invention of the wheel (circa 3500 BC) was an incredible turning point in the history of civilization. The edition of the Logitech G27 setup has also been just as incredible with regards to my game play with Euro Truck Simulator 2. As I had previously mentioned in this blog post, I recently ordered the Logitech G27 steering wheel and TrackIR both arrived from Amazon and I wasted no time in getting the G27 setup. As I had used the Logitech Xbox type controller (F310) for several weeks accumulating over 30,000 km driven, 35 deliveries, over 35 real hours playing the game spanning some 59 virtual game days….I wanted to first get used to the G27 controls before I installed and started using the TrackIR.
The unboxing, install/setup of the G27 was quick and easy. If you don’t already own a Logitech device, you’ll want to make sure you install the Logitech software available here. I also found this YouTube video to be extremely helpful and saved time in getting everything setup and working as intended. The G27 requires one USB connection to your gaming PC and requires a connection to AC power (via the supplied AC power adapter). The accelerator/brake/clutch along with the gear shift console all plug into the base of the wheel. Once you get all the cables connected, the wheel and gear shifter consoles then clamp down to the desk surface. The setup in ETS2 couldn’t be easier. Refer to the YouTube video I mentioned earlier.
While I certainly enjoy the extra immersion factor this setup provides, the main benefit I’ve found is much smoother drive/steering control than what I had experienced on the Logitech Xbox type controller I had been using. With the Logitech F310 controller, I would steer with my left thumb but found the act of turning was not natural in look and feel and very choppy. With the G27, the action of turning is smooth and the same experience as in driving any vehicle (car, truck etc.).
The great thing about the G27 are all the programmable buttons. I’m using the right/left paddle shifters to control right/left turn signals and have programmed the smaller buttons on the steering wheel to handle cruise control functions. Finally I’ve setup the many buttons on the gear shift device to handle other frequently used options such as headlights, wipers etc.
I’m also enjoying the manual shifting options this setup allows. Again the immersion factor this setup provides to the simulation is fantastic. As I’ve previously held a class A CDL (commercial drivers license) and have driven large trucks, I can say that while the G27 shifting setup is not that of a large diesel truck…it is the best setup for the price. Of course, you can also setup ETS2 for automatic transmission driving.
Again, I plan to spend a little more time with the G27 setup before I introduce my new TrackIR. I’m also looking forward to configuring the G27 with Farming Simulator 2015 as well.
If you have been thinking about adding a steering wheel controller to your ETS2 game play, the Logitech G27 is a great choice and I believe you’ll enjoy it.
Oh Yea!!! Oh Yea!!!! With as much fun as I’m having playing Euro Truck Simulator, American Truck Simulator will be a must have edition for my simulation collection of entertainment games. While I’ve known about ETS2 for some time, I’m only just learning about the plans for American Truck Simulator in the past few weeks and boy am I excited. While I know there are Kenworth and Peterbuilt mods available for ETS2, I’m holding out to drive these bad boys until I can do do so on virtual American soil…the way these beauties are designed to be driven. Plus the roads in Europe just aren’t conducive to these big beasts. But our wide open spaces and long interstate highways will certainly make for some awesome adventures.
While no official release date has been made public, I’ve read in a few places a mid August 2015 (August 10 on one site) possible release date. From what I can tell from the American Truck Simulator website and the few YouTube videos I’ve provided below, it looks like initially American Truck Simulator will focus on California and the West. A few of the images they show are Bakersfield, San Francisco, San Diego and Los Angeles, California and one screen shot appears to be of Las Vegas. As I read through a few comments on the SCSSoftware YouTube Channel some viewers are posting that additional US States will be released as DLC. Some of these States may be available free, while others would charge. This is probably a good move on the part of SCSSoftware as they can get the core application out quickly and then add additional DLC packs as they expand across the map. Of course I would expect the mod community to also help fill in the blanks much as ProMods has done in Europe.
Again, I’m sure American Truck Simulator will be a huge hit with trucking simulator enthusiast all around the world
More about the videos below. The first video is the official American Truck Simulator teaser video which was released by SCSSoftware on 17 June. The second video features just under an hour of gameplay from the 0.1.60 Alpha version of ATS. Based on the 58 minutes of gameplay, the concept and function is pretty much the same as ETS2, just different scenery. One thing I did notice which is different is the parking scenarios. It appears you may be offered multiple parking scenarios based on difficulty. With one star being easy, two stars being slightly more difficult and three stars maximum difficulty. One would assume the experience points would pay more on the three star versus the one star parking options. I think this is cool.
Final thoughts. I hope SCSSoftware will continue to develop their Trucking Simulator applications (both Euro and American) and provide more features. I have a list of items I’d love to see incorporated into game play. But I’ll leave this for a future blog posting.
Introducing Euro Truck Simulator 2! Well…I’m not really introducing it to you as you are probably already familiar with it. But I’m introducing it to myself. I recently picked ETS2 up when Stream had it on sale at a tremendously low, low, low price. I think I paid less than $7 USD for it. As I had obviously heard so much about it and watched many streams and YouTube videos about it, I decided I couldn’t go wrong with the price. So I pulled the trigger, downloaded and installed it.
Now for a little backstory. Of course, I’ve known about ETS2 for a long time. Much like I had heard about the popular Farming Simulator franchise. For so many years I only spent time flying my computer simulation programs. Remember, I’ve been flying computer based sims since the mid 1980’s. So over 30 years. Again, I’ve watched streams and videos about ETS2 and while I found them interesting, I didn’t really think I myself would enjoy playing them. While these titles (Farming and Euro Truck) both have Simulator in their titles, I really didn’t think they would match up to the same level of immersion that I would find with Flight Simulation.
My getting started with virtual farming sort of came at a time where my travel schedule started picking up and I wanted to find something I could play on a lower end gaming laptop. So I decided Farming Simulator would be something that could keep me entertained versus watching TV in the hotel. I was right. All I needed was my Logitech XBox type controller and my gaming laptop. After a few days of virtual farming I decided to investigate to see if I could find any blogs about Farming Simulator. While I found some, most were not in English and/or hadn’t been updated in many months. So I decided to start one. Of course now that I’m also enjoying ETS2, I really haven’t found many ETS2 blogs (but I also haven’t looked) and it has led me to start one but I didn’t want to have to keep up with three blog sites and then what do I do when I want to start another simulation blog site?
The idea for this new blog site really came about after I captured the screenshot below. This shot was not staged, it just happened to be a random shot. Do you see it? Do you see the symbolism here? We have a truck (representing ETS2) and that truck is pulling two tractors (representing Farming Simulator). But look carefully….in the background is an airplane on approach into Brussels airport. I call this photo the trifecta. The only thing it is missing is a train.
So yes…I’m now trying to juggle how to give equal time to my simulation based games. The good news is ETS2 plays well on the gaming laptop and I’m still traveling a fair deal. So look for more posts about all my simulation gaming interests here on my new blog site.
Now with regards to any “real life” experience I might have which could coincide with ETS2. Well, about 25 years ago I did hold a commercial drivers license (Class A CDL) in the state of Texas. I drove tractor trailer rigs for the Dr. Pepper Bottling Company. I left that life behind and jumped headfirst into the IT world. Will my truck driving experience help with ETS2? Time will tell and I’ll be sure to tell you all about it real soon.
The invention of the wheel (circa 3500 BC) was an incredible turning point in the history of civilization. The edition of the Logitech G27 setup has also been just as incredible with regards to my game play with Euro Truck Simulator 2. 
